Archive for Exercise Gadgets

Adidas announced on Wednesday the release of a new smartwatch targeting runners, putting some additional competition in the wearable exercise devices with Nike’s Fuelband and the Fitbit Force.

According to Paul Gaudio, the vice president in charge of Adidas’ interactive division, the Adidas smartwatch is focusing on making the best running watch as apposed to competing in the smartwatch space with Google and Apple. The Adidas smartwatch includes the ability to connect through Bluetooth with a smartphone but will require less dependency by incorporating flash storage for music right on the wrist-worn device. It also has features to give real-time feedback to the user while exercising by tracking heart rate and motion, and then producing vibrations or audible feedback through headphones.

The watch isn’t coming cheap however with an expected price tag of $399. Compared to the Nike Fuelband it comes …

Fitbit, makers of the fitness tracking Flex wristband, announced Thursday that it will be releasing the Fitbit Force this fall. The Force is an updated version of the Flex with some additional features, most notably an OLED display right on the device.

The added display is a big advancement in the device. Not only will this allow the user to see their distance progress and calories burned as you might expect, but it can also see the names of incoming callers. The Fitbit Force will pair with your iPhone via Bluetooth and is the first of the wrist-worn devices to take advantage of the new Apple iOS 7 notification center. This way users on a run can track the calls that come in without having to pull out their phone and gives Fitbit a jump on the competition from Nike’s Fuelband and …

The new Nike+ SportWatch GPS powered by TomTom is like a fitness coach. One that will track what you do, track how you do it, and then makes you do it again you filthy maggot. Double time! Okay, maybe it isn’t that motivating, but it will help.

The Nike+ SportWatch GPS combines the accuracy of GPS with the shoe-based Nike+ sensor (attached to your iPod Nano) to track time, pace, distance, calories burned, and heart rate, as you do your daily run. It will actually talk to you through your iPod Nano. The Nike Senor translates your workout data from the Sport Kit to your iPod Nano, which can then be connected to NikePlus.com.

If you like to run or walk Nike and Apple have the Nike Plus system that will record your workout and help you to reach your exercise goals. A company called Finis has announced a new device called Swimsense that does the same thing for swimmers.

The Swimsense device looks like a watch but records all sorts of details about your swimming workout. The device records things like the number of laps you swim, total distance swam, calories burned, lap times, pace, and stroke count.

If you’re looking to keep tabs on your heart rate, then the Oregon Scientific SH201 is a wearable device for you. It tracks your projected fluid loss and alerts you to hydrate in order to get an optimal workout. So it tells you when you need to drink.

The device also measures calorie and percentage of fat burned/fitness and body mass index. It has three exercise profiles: jogging, running or cycling.

Calorie breath. It sounds like an insult. Hey Calorie breath, you could use a breath mint. It’s a device that claims that it will help you keep the pounds off. It has to be used once a day for five minutes. Breathing in from the device supposedly causes a stomach movement that will slim you down.

Notice the packaging. No hot women here shown after successfully using the product. Instead they show a rather uh, shapely large woman. One good thing is that while this is in your mouth, you won’t be shoving food in.

Samsung’s MyFit is a player for those who enjoy working out and keeping fit. The device has 8GB of space, the usual video codec support, an FM radio and it’s equipped with an accelerometer and a tracking system that tells you how many calories you’ve burned.

You can also record your caloric consumption per meal though a fitness manager application. Need to know when to drink water? It will tell you. It also has a function that will yell at you when you’re smoking.

Philips DirectLife Activity monitor is exercising the geek way. As a geek, I don’t understand fancy concepts like calories or body mass index or push-ups. What I do understand is status bars. I know when something is fully loaded, half loaded or almost there. And that’s all I need.

I depend on status bars to tell me how close I am to a goal. Philips knows this. The Philips DirectLife Activity Monitor looks like a pedometer and has the status bar in green LEDs on the front. Using the software that comes with the device, you enter your fitness goals and then go about your day. Then just look at it to see how close you are.

The Withings scale has a sleek and stylish look along with WiFi functionality. The latter will beam your weight and body fat measurements to a web dashboard that can be accessed using a free iPhone app. This way you can track your measurements to help motivate yourself.

It even has “ideal” values that you can try to live up to. Somehow, we think that if you are not motivated enough get fit without this thing, than this isn’t going to do much except get you down. And at $183, it’s hard to get motivated to even buy this.

Just because you use a walking stick it doesn’t mean that you can’t get in on the whole pedometer thing and count your steps. The Pedomostick from Hammacher Schlemmer is like a regular walking stick, but with an integrated pedometer that will count every step you take.

It will calculate the calories you’ve burned and it will measure the distance and time you’ve walked. That’s not all. It also comes with a built-in LCD in the handle to display all of those stats. Oh and there’s also an LED flashlight mounted in the shaft to light your way at night.

Who says you have to leave the office to go to the Gym? Or leave the gym to go to the office. Well, with the Steelcase Sit-to-Walkstation, maybe you won’t have the entire gym at your disposal, but at least you’ll have a treadmill. That’s because the Steelcase Sit-to-Walkstation is a workstation and a treadmill in one. So the question becomes, what will give you a heart-attack first? Your impending deadline or all that running at your desk?

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle while being an office worker isn’t easy, but now you will have an edge. The Sit-to-Walkstation from Steelcase is a 2-in-1 workstation that allows users to walk, stand or sit while on the job. Instead of just sit.

Takara Tomy wanted them some of that sweet Wii Fit action, so they launched the Minutes Gym Digital Video Trainer which is a pretty simple looking device that plugs into your TV or display with a composite video input. Just give it some basic info and use the integrated body fat sensor to measure your current state of flabbiness.

After that a bunch of animated figures will guide you through your fitness workouts. An incredible 100,000,000. That’s right 100 million 3-minute workouts. You’d have to be Jabba the Hutt to get through all of them and still be rotund.

Those of us not handicapped take running and bike riding for granted. Sadly, handicapped individuals can not participate in either activity. But the GlideCycle might let them do what they’ve only dreamed about. Check out a video below.

The GlideCycle can be powered with just one leg, or even two disabled legs. It was developed in Oregon and is great for those who are overweight, disabled, amputees, and even non-disabled people. It’s basically a large U with wheels and a seat that lets anyone exercise outdoors.

Reviewing a technology gadget is usually is fair amount of work anyway, but trying out the FiTrainer from iTami turned out to be a little more than I had bargained for. The FiTrainer is essentially a customizable, virtual fitness coach with direct access to your current level of exertion and your ears.

The device is essentially a pair of somewhat-large headphones with a built in heart-rate monitor, music and voice prompts to continuously keep you in the “right” zone for your workout. Users enter in the type of workout and their age and then start exercising. The voice inside the headset guides you through the rest.

The Taxi Walker Pedometer from Japan gives you the usual calorie and distance measurements of a standard pedometer, but what’s interesting is that it integrates a meter displaying how much money you are saving by walking rather then taking a taxi the same distance. A good gadget to have in this economic climate.

Apparently, it’s fully programmable, and will calculate cab fares depending on your geographic location. You can even set it to make sound effects whenever a cab fare increases. The device is available in yellow, orange, white, or black for $29.00. Yeah, but will it yell at you in a foreign accent and honk an imaginary horn?